You say tomayto, I say tomahto. Any way you say it, Jason Hulst's '04 Ford F-150 is a beautiful expression of professional truck-building. Clean, classy, simple, and yet so effective. History has an odd way of repeating itself, and once the family at Hulst Customs received the truck from Ford, the creation of a one-off street truck began with the incorporation of the family's other business - building SuperWagons.
SuperWagons began with the company's need to mobilize tools while building hot rods, instead of stopping what they were doing and walking over to the toolbox. With the creation of these versatile and easily moveable tool carts, along with the release of the all-new F-150, the Hulst crew put their heads together to create a custom one-off truck with a matching SuperWagon cart.
Beginning the project with a stock F-150, the first item to change was the exterior skin of Ford's latest and greatest. Paul Hulst warmed up the welder and shaved the door handles and the tailgate handle, and after shaving the gas door, relocated it to the bed. Access to the tailgate and doors are now garnered through the use of a remote with power actuators for each. Adding style to the newly cleaned lines were Street Scene mirrors, a blacked-out third brake light, de-chromed bumpers, and custom Hulst bed caps. Speaking of the bed, housed in the brushed aluminum and anodized bed is a custom-motorized SuperWagon built to the exact specifications of the Hulst family. With the bodywork complete and the SuperWagon built, Paul put away the welder and brought out the paint gun.
Mixed by the pros at X-otic Colours, Paul applied even coats of Ford Black, Quartz Green, and custom-mixed orange to the exterior of the Ford and the SuperWagon. With the desire to build a clean and custom truck, suspension and performance were next on the list.
Andy Peterman was recruited to install Air Ride Technologies' new Intelli-Ride system at each corner. The Hulst crew couldn't bear to have the F-150 dropped on the stockers and yanked them in favor of 22x9-inch Oasis Cyclos wheels designed by Jason Hulst. Wrapping the first set of Oasis wheels are P265/35R22 Pirelli Scorpions in the front and P305/40R22 Pirellis in the rear. Bringing the rig to a halt are custom Stainless Steel Brake Corporation's three-piston calipers, applying pressure to the 14-inch rotors with Ford F-150 logos milled into the surface. Providing better breathing from the front to back are a CGS Motorsports air intake and a Flowmaster three-chamber exhaust system installed by Andy Peterman. Fooling the novice enthusiasts are dummy lake pipes on each side of the truck that visually lower the truck, but do not emit any exhaust gases. Stop and go were now taken care of, so the Hulst crew moved to the interior.
Carrying the custom theme inside are re-covered seats in beautiful Katzkin leather seat covers in willow green with burnt orange stitching. Looking down from the driver seat, you see custom vinyl diamond-plate material from Haartz and painted dash components from Paul Hulst. Each door panel was sanded smooth and painted black to match the classy exterior.
What was left for the Hulst family? The answer to that question was to display the truck in the Ford booth at the 2003 SEMA Show, where it received the Ford Design Achievement Award. Now that is a perfect match.